WHANGAREI has a particular interest in the life and work of the Rev. Samuel Leigh, the first Wesleyan missionary to take up work in New Zealand, and who had picked upon Whangarei as the proposed site of his earliest labours.

It was under his direct auspices and leadership and in his presence that the two first religious services were held in Whangarei.

It may be owing to courtesy towards the generous Anglican helpers who were with him, or to his own poor health and the trying preceding days, that he himself did not conduct those services.